Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Conceptual framework for special education -- Part II. Organizational and administrative strategies and models in special education -- Part III. Federal programming and legislation -- Part IV. National perspective and trends -- Part V. The special education administrator -- Part VI. Facilities and technology -- Part VII. International perspective -- Part VIII. Special education personnel: characteristics, preparation, staffing, and research.

The field of special education has passed through several critical phases in its development. It has survived the critics, and the advocates have been honored. Programs in all areas of exceptionality have expanded, some with more structure than others. None has had clear cut guidelines or precedents. Chance has often been the rule rather than the exception in the classroom and in the administrative realm. The process of extrapolation from many fields of inquiry has filtered in bits and pieces of information to the worker in special education. But the expanding fields of organization and administration of special education can no longer afford this oblique approach in dealing with the problems and issues of providing special services for exceptional children, youth, and adults.